Degenerative and/or traumatic damage to skeletal joints or other locations within a patient's body may require surgical intervention. During such surgical intervention, it is often necessary to position and/or support a surgical component at a desired location relative to the surgical site. For example, damage to the articular cartilage of a skeletal joint can result in pain and restricted motion. Prosthetic joint replacement is frequently utilized to alleviate the pain and restore joint function. In this procedure, the damaged parts of the joint are cut away and replaced with prosthetic components. Typically a resection guide is used to guide a cutter such as a saw blade or burr to cut a desired portion of the bone to prepare a seating surface for a prosthetic component. The resection guide must be carefully positioned to guide the cut at the appropriate location.
For example, during knee replacement surgery, an incision is made into the knee joint to expose the joint. Cutting guides defining cutting planes are positioned adjacent the articular surfaces of the tibia and femur. The cut guide locations are carefully adjusted to position the cut planes to guide the removal of portions of the articular surfaces of the tibia and femur. Prosthetic joint components are positioned on the cut bone surfaces to replace the resected portions of the tibia and femur in order to establish the desired alignment and mechanics of the joint. Proper orientation of the prosthetic joint components depends on the proper positioning of the cut guides.